Back of the Book links for the November 9, 2013, program

We plan to get to the below topics and more. We'll talk a little bit about the things going on about WBAI's future on this program. Check back for updates.

The next regular WBAI LSB meeting is up in the air right now. The location for the regular November LSB meeting fell through.

The WBAI LSB met on Wednesday, October 9, 2013, at Alwan-for-the-arts, 16 Beaver Street, 4^th floor, in downtown Manhattan.

This LSB meeting started 48 minutes late. The faction got there and had a majority at the start of the meeting. The Vice-Chair had resigned as Vice-Chair because she just didn't want to be harassed and treated badly by the faction operatives. As a result, I had to chair the meeting because I was the only LSB officer who was at the meeting who was also a voting member of the LSB.

So I chaired. The faction moved the agenda around to their liking, since they had a majority, and then they extended the meeting by a full hour, making the adjournment time 10:30 PM.

After some time more non-faction members came to the meeting and there was an 8 to 8 standoff. The faction then wasted a lot of time on one motion that was pretty much a duplicate of a motion passed about seven or eight years ago. And then they brought their big motion of the night. This one tried to force the interim Program Director to roll back all of the changes he's made so far and have him only make changes after big meetings with all the Staff and consultations and, basically, a lot of what gets called “process” but which is really just nonsense. Yes, the interim Program Director was brash and not very nice to some Staff about removing the programs they did from the air, but WBAI is in what is probably the biggest emergency of its existence, and if programming changes aren't made very soon there won't be a radio station here to have programs on. I didn't get to debate this motion because I had to chair the meeting. Faction operatives were obnoxious and disruptive, maybe in an effort to make some of the non-faction members leave. But that didn't work. In the end their motion failed by a tie vote, and as Chair I got to cast the vote that killed it. I would prefer that the interim Program Director be nicer towards Staff, but the priority here is to save WBAI.

At the 10:30 mark the faction tried to extend the meting time even more. They engage in a tactic called sitzkrieg, where they sit out their opponents. Once their opponents leave they will have a majority and they can pass almost anything they please. It didn't work this time.

We did not get to a Treasurer's Report at this meeting. Here's a written Treasurer's Report I had posted the night before.

At a previous meeting the WBAI LSB voted to hold its meetings on the second Wednesday of every month and/or the last Thursday of that month, subject to change by the LSB, which gives us the following schedule:

WBAI has a program schedule up on its newly revamped Web site. The site has gotten many of the individual program pages together to provide links and such, so check it out.

Because WBAI was forced out of its studios by the flood waters' destruction of the building's electrical system we still have this alternate, temporary stream for the radio station! I do not know how long this emergency stream will be up for. If this stream isn't working let me know.

New WBAI stream! WBAI has put up an experimental stream for the Apple iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. This is a brand new, experimental stream. So if you have one of those devices you might try the link out. And let us know how it works for you one way or the other. That way the folks implementing it can iron out any kinks in the system.

Back of the Book is one of the programs that you can download, as well as listen to on line.

In the table on the archive Web page Back of the Book and Saturday Morning With the Radio On are both in the “Show” column. The “Date and Category” column shows the date of the program. After the program I go in and write the details of the program and say which program it is. Of course I'd recommend that you just listen to both programs in this time slot!

The Pacifica National Board (PNB) met in Manhattan the weekend of October 1-3, 2010. The audio has been posted for the first day of the meeting, the second day of the meeting and the third day of the meeting.

The Pacifica National Board (PNB) is meeting this weekend. They will be deliberating on whether or not to accept a proposal for a Public Service Operating Agreement (PSOA) whereby some other entity will essentially lease WBAI from Pacifica. They may be determining the fate of WBAI this weekend.

I'm sure that if we have a next program we'll e talking about this meeting and what comes out of it. I think that the success of the Fall 'thon will help to prevent the PNB from approving a PSOA at this meeting. And if they did approve one it'd probably take a couple of months at least before it could be implemented.

Yeah, we can't stay away from Coney Island. We went down there in the pat fortnight. The season is totally over now, of course. Everything is shut down, but in some ways it's better that way. There are fewer crowds to contend with and the obnoxious, blaring so-called music isn't polluting the environment from the bade of the Parachute Jump. On the downside you may need to walk for a while before you can find a place to pee in the off season.

Here you can see how windy it was on the day we were there. The temperature was in the 40s and we had quite the wind chill by the beach.

There are a lot of issues that are considered hazardous to talk about on the air at WBAI, even though the gag rule was lifted in 2002. However, there is the Internet! There are mailing lists which you can subscribe to and Web based message boards devoted to WBAI and Pacifica issues. Many controversial WBAI/Pacifica issues are discussed on these lists.

One popular list the “NewPacifica” mailing list. Founded October 31, 2000, this list is sometimes lively and as of mid-2011, has 687 subscribers coast to coast.

Being lively, of course, it sometimes also gets a bit nasty. All sorts of things are happening on this list and official announcements are frequently posted there.

You can look at the NewPacifica list here, and you can join the list from that Web page too. If you subscribe to the “NewPacifica” mailing list you will receive, via E-mail, all of the messages which are sent to that list.

There is the option to receive a “digest” version of the list, which means that a bunch of messages are bundled into one E-mail and sent to you at regular intervals, this cuts down on the number of E-mails you get from the list. You will also be able to send messages to the list.

This list also has a Web based interface where you can read messages and from which you can post your own messages.

There is also the more WBAI specific “Goodlight” Web based message board. It is sometimes referred to on Back of the Book as “the bleepin' blue board,” owing to the blue background used on its Web pages. This one has many people posting anonymously and there's also an ancillary “WBAI people” board that's just totally out of hand. UPDATE: The bleepin' blue board has had to add a step for folks to get onto it because it's under attack by spambots. When you click on the above link you may be asked for a username and password. Type in Username: poster Password: enternow

When the computer in Master Control is working we sometimes have live interaction with people posting on the “Goodlight Board” during the program.

Our very own Uncle Sidney Smith, whose program Saturday Morning With the Radio On alternates with us, has a blog these days. You can reach his blog here.

We like to stay interactive with our listeners. Here are the various options for you to get in touch with us.

You can also send me E-mail.

And now you can even reach me on Twitter

•

WBAI related links

WBAI Listeners' Web page

WBAI Management's official Web site

Back of the Book — November 9, 2013